This week I finished:
Unforgiven, produced by, directed by, and starring Clint Eastwood: After finishing podcast guest Steven Pressfield‘s The Arcadian, I posted Wounded warriors, by Clint Eastwood, and us about “a scene from Steven’s book where three warriors share the effects on their minds of their heroism. It began with what happened to their bodies, which seems the visible counterpart of what happens to their minds, not counting those who were killed and aren’t there to be seen or heard.”
I then posted a scene from Unforgiven, where Eastwood’s character remarks on killing a person:
It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.
I couldn’t remember if I’d seen the movie. Then the library had the dvd, so I borrowed it. I had seen it before, but I didn’t remember enough of it that it was like watching it for the first time, especially after Steven’s books.
I liked it. Certainly the acting and nuance to the characters. It borders on greatness, though I don’t think reaches it, Maybe. Eastwood’s character draws you in. I can’t imagine life out west with all the guns, vigilante justice, and other aspects of westerns. This movie makes them more human, less mythic, than most westerns.
Still, it will probably prompt me to watch the Fistful of Dollars and other old westerns. I remember how surprised I was to love them as much as I did. I’ve learned a lot about movies since.
The Lesbian Mask Bar Riot and the Future of the Left, on the What Is Politics? videocast: I subscribe to few podcasts and videocasts. I find very few that create consistently thought-provoking material I learn from, that change my views. What Is Politics? does it so I’ll probably post when he posts his latest.
His latest two aren’t his best. He ascribes to woke people intent to boss around and destroy as if those results are what they wanted. From his earlier videos I see it differently. People exerting power means they can control a resource with no alternative. That situation is the source of political power. When you gain that control, then when you exert it—that is, when you limit people’s access to a resource they need, or threaten to—you tell yourself, “I’m doing it for your own good.”
The woke people he’s talking about are doing what people in general do when they control a resource with no alternative.
One-hour documentaries on Washington, Hamilton, John Adams, and Mandela from a channel called The People Profiles:
Established in 2018 by Edwin Elliott, The People Profiles was the first long-form independent documentary channel on YouTube. With detailed, politically neutral, meticulously researched scripts, all written by qualified and award-winning historians, narrators and video editors with years of experience in both video production and film. The team at The People Profiles prides itself on being the gold standard for attention to detail, accuracy, quality, as well as unbiased, fair and factual biographies of famous and infamous people in history. As of 2026, all People Profiles scripts are written, narrated and edited by human beings and our thumbnails are based on real paintings, statues and photographs of each historical figure, to give you the most accurate image of them possible.
“All human history essentially comes down to biography.” Edwin Elliott